Understanding the body's response to biomaterials for improved tissue repair

A number of smart materials and geometric designs are used in the development of bone tissue engineering scaffold implants. However, a major barrier in the successful deployment of biomaterials is our inability to control the foreign body response (FBR) upon implantation. Bioactive additions to these scaffolds are often used to provide the necessary biological stimulation to promote tissue growth, mitigate foreign body response, and enhance regeneration. These bioactive additions can be synthetic engineered materials such as peptide-biofunctionalized materials or derived from the native biological environment such as growth factor proteins and extracellular matrix (ECM) components. Optimized biomolecule designs and how they can be immobilized upon a scaffold is far from fully explored. The project aims to explore novel biomolecule designs and to develop robust characterization strategies. We will perform state-of-the-art characterization methods to understand the evolution of the FBR to biomaterials with 3D spatial resolution. The spatial and temporal characterization of FBR will influence the design of regenerative medicine therapies with clear clinical applicability.